About the Author: Monique Morrison recently graduated from college and is currently a yoga instructor who will complete a 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training in August 2017. She also co-founded ZenAF, a space dedicated to helping millennials learn how to meditate and create their most kickass life.

It’s officially summer-time, which means lots of sunshine, lots of adventures and lots of traveling. Though traveling is amazing and opens us up to new experiences, a lot of anxiety can come up during a vacation. We can become stressed about travel plans, packing and where we will be staying. Traveling also puts us out of our routine and throws us into a completely foreign environment which can bring up anxiety as well. To help you stay calm and centered during your vacations, here are 5 ways to keep your zen while traveling:

Plan a float before your trip

To help start your trip calm and centered, plan a float session just before you leave. This will get you into the zen mindset, relax your mind and your body and prepare you for anything that may come up.

Meditate

During your travel time and while on your vacation, take time to meditate. This can be especially important to do as soon as you arrive at your destination so you can get yourself grounded in this new environment. Meditating will help calm your system and make apparent any underlying issues that are causing anxiety.

Looking up float centers

If you have the time and want to find a deep meditation on your trip, you can look into visiting a local float center. Floating is becoming more and more widespread and most major cities have a floating center. This is also fun because it introduces you to locals that have similar interests and connects you with the community.

Journal

Journaling is a helpful tool to reducing anxiety, in addition to meditating and floating. Journaling is very releasing and expressive, because it takes worries out of your mind and onto paper. By having to write through your anxiety, you may be able to identify a root cause of your nerves or come to a solution about how to fix it.

Float when you get home

To decompress from your trip and avoid being overwhelmed when you get back to “real life”, schedule a float for when you get home. This will help you reground and get back into your daily routine.

Being mindful and aware of any travel anxiety is one step closer to enjoying your vacation. By listening to what you need and taking proactive steps, you are setting yourself up for success.

About the Author: Monique Morrison recently graduated from college and is currently a yoga instructor who will complete a 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training in August 2017. She also co-founded ZenAF, a space dedicated to helping millennials learn how to meditate and create their most kickass life.

Today’s world offers countless conveniences, but sometimes all they seem to do is create more distractions, more stress, and less time for what really matters. We are over-connected and overloaded. With just one click of a button I can find out what my best friend from seventh grade had for lunch or how my mom’s cousin is treating her son’s skateboarding injury.

The opportunity to connect with loved ones is wonderful. The distraction that too much information causes in our lives is beyond ridiculous.

In 2010, CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, told crowds at Techonomy Conference that we create as much information in two days as we did from the dawn of man through 2003. The even scarier part is that rate is only accelerating.

Every day, it’s important to spend time working to intentionally shut out distractions so we can find peace of mind and focus on ourselves. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Have Confidence To Step Away From Your Devices

Because of cell phones and tablets everyone you know—and most of the people you have ever known—have access to you in some way, no matter where you are. Do you realize how many potential distractions and stresses that can create?

Think about it: Every time you stop to check the latest notification, how long does it take you to get back into the focused zone you just abandoned? Do you find yourself getting up for a snack, deciding to check email, or starting an entirely new task?

After you get back from your break or work your way back into the zone, tally how much time you’re actually spending on that interruption—is it five, ten, fifteen minutes? Just to check your phone. Or answer a question that could have waited until the next meeting.

Intake overload is inescapable unless you have the confidence to step away from your devices and disappoint a few people.

2. Set “Office Hours” that your family, friends, coworkers, and clients can reach you at

It’s okay to not be available 24-hours a day.

Your smartphone should have a feature that allows you to either put your phone in a do not disturb mode (iPhone) or blocking mode (Android) to reduce the number of interruptions you receive via phone and text messaging. You can also select to turn off notifications from certain apps.

These options won’t work for every person, but it's highly recommend that you at least take advantage of this option for social networks. Do you really need to know right away if someone “likes” the picture of your dog? You can still find out this information, but if you turn off notifications, you’ll be checking your networks on your own time frame and not someone else’s. Give some thought to the kind of interruptions that are worth spending valuable time on every day.

3. Use your free time to Relax, Recharge, and Rejuvenate

Many people underestimate just how valuable relaxation is to their well-being. In many ways, our society has tabooed relaxation. Most Americans have a certain degree of guilt when it comes to doing nothing.

Many people underestimate just how valuable relaxation is to their well-being. In many ways, our society has tabooed relaxation. Most Americans have a certain degree of guilt when it comes to doing nothing. 

— Shane Stott

We know days of doing nothing feel great. We know a weekend with no plans revives us. And we know a vacation can make us feel alive and happy in the face of high levels of stress. Yet nobody seems to make relaxation a priority.

To really put relaxation as a priority in your life, you need to first pay attention and realize just how valuable it is. Next time you relax, watch what it does to you and make a mental note. The next time you have a relaxing weekend, journal about it. The next time you're flying home from a trip, spend the flight contemplating how you feel and why.

Then put those observations into action and make a point to schedule relaxation into your day, your week, and your month. Rather than allowing yourself to run from one thing to the next, always saying yes and never determining what’s really best for you, make sure to intentionally schedule down time.

In conclusion, external demands and distractions are only as stressful as you allow them to be. Take control of your schedule and your time, and you will probably find that some of your peace of mind naturally returns.

Snippets of this blog post were taken from the The Float Tank Cure: Free Yourself of Stress, Anxiety, and Pain the Natural Way. Click here to claim your FREE copy today. *While supplies last!

Well, there's a lot of truth behind this simple phrase. While your mind is not always the most honest with you, your body is stays truthful and cannot tell a lie.

When we need to sleep, we yawn and feel tired. When we need to be refueled, our belly growls and we feel hungry.When we need to recover, our body aches and we feel stiff.

Same thing goes for when your body needs recharging–it lets you know. Here are 6 clear signs that it's time for you to relax and give your body a rest:

1. High anxiety

Anxiety comes in all different forms but racing thoughts, feeling distracted, and lack of sleep are just a few of the common side affects. When you're anxious, it's simply a sign of your body telling you that you need to calm down. While meditation can be an easy and accessible solution to this, it sometimes feels impossible to focus your mind when you're anxious. This is why floating in a sensory deprivation tank is so powerful, because it creates the most ideal environment to achieve deep levels of meditation and relaxation.

2. You're feeling stuck creatively

Struggling to get your creative juices floating? Whether you're working on a post for your blog or just helping your child with their upcoming art assignment, lack of creativity can often be a sign that you have too much on your mind. Sometimes all it takes is an hour to disconnect with the world and reconnect with yourself to get the creativity flowing again.

3. Distracted or restless

We've all had those days at work where there's a big project that needs to get done but you just can't seem to stop pacing around the office. You're restless, and antsy, and nothing can get you to focus. It's okay to be distracted every once in a while, but if you've found it happening more than usual it may be time press pause and reset your mind. Float therapy is a excellent technique that many have found to improve concentration because it forces you to literally focus on one thing and removes all possible distractions.

4. Your muscles are tense

When the body is stressed your muscles can become tense. It’s an automatic response and your body’s way of guarding against injury and pain. While it's most common for your muscles to tighten in your upper back, neck and shoulders but it could happen in any parts of your body and is a sign that those muscles need some extra care. And what could possibly be better than soaking your muscles in 800lbs. of epsom salt?

5. Lack of motivation or negative thinking

If you find yourself sinking down in the dirt, there's no better time to (literally) float it out. The primary cause of unhappiness or negative thoughts is never the situation itself, but your thoughts about the situation. Often times you just need to take a step back in order to shift your mindset into the right place and the elimination of external stimuli in a float tank it produces chemical changes in the body that allow for clarity of thought.

6. Fuzzy memory

Like a plane needs fuel, your brain needs sleep, and neither will run for very long on empty. Studies show that among other things, your body uses sleep to stabilize chemical imbalances and to process the memories and knowledge that you've gathered throughout the day. If you're having trouble remembering details it could be a sign that you need to rest your mind. While it may be hard to squeeze in a few extra hours of sleep, it's been said that floating for one hour is equivalent to four hours of sleep.

Learn more about how float therapy can help you relax, refresh and rejuvenate in our Free Float 101 Online Course.

We all experience certain levels of stress, whether it be at work, school, or within relationships. When we are feeling stressed, hormones like cortisol flood our systems, sometimes known as the "fight or flight response." Your heart goes up, you begin to breathe more heavily...any of this sound familiar?

Sometimes stress is unavoidable but what really matters is how you handle it.

One of the best ways to cope with stress is by floating. However, if you're stressed out at work or on vacation, you may not have access or even time to float. With that in mind, here are 4 ways to deal besides just floating, so you can effectively keep your stress levels in check:

1. Take A Deep Breath or Five

Sounds really simple, we know, but according to stress.org, abdominal breathing for 20 to 30 minutes each day will reduce anxiety and reduce stress. Deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to your brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes a state of calmness. Breathing techniques help you feel connected to your body—it brings your awareness away from the worries in your head and quiets your mind. Not to mention, it's free and easy to do anywhere!

2. Walk It Out

Entering a more 'zen' mindset could be as easy as taking a walk in the park, according to a small study by scientists at Heriot-Watt University in the U.K. The study found that walking through green spaces can put the brain into a meditative state and can trigger "involuntary attention" mening that it holds attention while also allowing for reflection. Also, a number of studies have also shown that spending time outdoors relieves stress. Next time you're feeling stressed, try walking it out.

3. Put Away the Technology

The ability to text, email, call, or instant message a friend or family member at any given time is a great luxury, but it also causes increased stress levels. And get this: the average American spends roughly 4.7 hours on their phone each and every day. So do yourself a favor and try to unplug from that tiny little screen for awhile.

4. Visualize & Meditate

Visualization is the act of imagining yourself in a peaceful and safe environment - a place that makes you relaxed and happy. Here are some great tips for practicing visualization:

Go to a room where you will not be interrupted for 20 minutes.

Close your eyes.

To relax, take several deep abdominal breaths.

Focus on your breathing as you relax.

Search online for a guided meditation or audio of your choice

If you choose to visualize on your own without audio, think of a restful place you have enjoyed or would like to visit. Picture it in your mind. Imagine how you would experience it through each of your senses. Hold that visualization for several minutes.

At the end of the session, take a minute or two to return slowly to a less stressed-out reality.

While all of these methods of relaxation techniques very well, we still recommend to anyone who experiences stress to try incorporating a more regular floating practice into daily life. This is because in a float tank tank your dopamine levels instantly rise, making it easier and more natural for your body to overcome stress. Not to mention that this feeling typically lasts a couple of days, sometimes longer, so it's extremely effective for managing stress on a long-term basis.

At the end of the day, there is no one relaxation technique that is best for every single person but it's important to make sure you consider your specific needs and preferences when it comes to choosing a technique. The right technique is the one that resonates with you the most truly elicits your body's natural relaxation response.

When you hear the word stress, what thoughts often come to your mind? For most, I would have to guess a mixture of negative thoughts associated with the word; stress with work, stress about finances, stress about life in general. However, stress is not bad at all. In a lot of cases, stress can actually be good. As long as you can change your outlook on how stress affects your life and you can be mindful of why you are experiencing it, stress can be a powerful motivator in your life.

What is stress?

Stress is your body's response to certain situations. Stress is subjective. Something that may be stressful for one person -- speaking in public, for instance -- may not be stressful for someone else. Not all stresses are "bad" either. For example, getting a new job promotion to a management position may be considered a "good" stress.

I’m sure most of you already know, especially if you are an avid floater, that stress can have a huge affect on your mental, physical, and emotional health. It can speed up your heart rate, make your body sweat, and make your brain think at a mile a minute. But what many of us don’t know is that there are actually two types of stress: positive and negative or often referred to as, Eustress and Distress.

How the two different types of stress affect you

The first type of stress is Eustress, or what we like to refer to as positive stress. Eustress is often felt when we are faced with challenges that may be difficult but we know we are capable of overcoming. Challenges and responsibilities like this give us a sense of thrill and excitement.

One example of eustress is having a big competition arise at work. Though you know this competition is going to require more effort and hours at work, it brings a feeling of enthusiasm to succeed or win in a challenge.

Eustress is a healthy kind of stress because it encourages and motivates us in our life and at work and also gives us a feeling of fulfillment.

The second type of stress is the negative kind of stress, or Distress. Distress is referred to as the “most popular” kind of stress. It’s caused by negative factors such as unhappiness, anxiety, depression, fatigue, etc.

It’s hard to provide an example of distress because every person reacts differently in particular situations but generally these are some examples of situations that case distress: divorce, death, injury, loss of job, other conflict.

When we are faced with negative stress, if often blocks our happiness and success and if it continues for a long period of time we can become emotionally, physically, and mentally sick.

People who experience a lot of distress are the ones who always complain about life. They tend to play the victim role instead of being a victor. This stems from a feeling of being unfulfilled and has a huge affect on your potential success level if it carries on over time.

What’s the point of all of this?

Now that we’re aware of the two types of stress and how they affect us, it’s important to look for solutions to change. t’s always important to remember that the goal is not to get rid of stress completely – but to instead identify our stressors and find ways to overcome the negative stress that those things induce.